Leeds United’s visit to The Valley comes at a good time for Charlton says defender Tom Lockyer.

Despite registering back-to-back defeats to Birmingham and Wigan, the summer recruit feels the visit of promotion favourites and league pace-setters is not to be feared.

Starting the season as an unknown quantity in the division, an unbeaten run of six games propelled Lee Bowyer’s men up to third and teams started to take notice.

The visit of Marcelo Beilsa’s side however casts The Addicks as the ‘underdogs’ once again, a label the 24-year-old is comfortable with.

“We shouldn’t fear Leeds,” said Lockyer.

“We can go into it like all the other games, like underdogs.

“I think we handle that pressure a bit better.

“It does seem to work that way, certainly at the start of the season, everybody wrote us off, expected us to lose and a win was a bonus, we had nothing to lose.

“But we kept going about our business and got a good start.”

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Bowyer was critical of his players at the DW Stadium, labelling it ‘the worst of the season’ so far.

Lockyer however insists they won’t allow themselves to carried way with the disappointment of Saturday, just as much as they didn’t allow themselves to get carried away with their unbeaten run.

“We had a good start, but it’s only a good start,” he added.

“The last two games, you can see it more than ever, no game is an easy game.

“Our aim is to stay in the league and it’s going to be a battle.

“We all know it wasn’t good enough at Wigan, we don’t need the gaffer to tell us that.”

Leeds

Turning his attention to Leeds, the former Bristol Rovers man was fully aware of the challenge at hand as they prepared for Saturday.

“We had a bit of a lighter session on Monday, lifted the spirits as we, focus on us and the opposition now, and what a way to bounce back with than a tough game against Leeds.

“They made the play-offs last year, and everybody knows their style and how good they are.

“It’ll be a tough game, but any game in this league is tough.

“It’ll be a hell of a test.”